1,619 research outputs found
No new cosmological concordance with massive sterile neutrinos
It has been claimed recently that massive sterile neutrinos could bring about
a new concordance between observations of the cosmic microwave background
(CMB), the large-scale structure (LSS) of the Universe, and local measurements
of the Hubble constant, . We demonstrate that this apparent concordance
results from combining datasets which are in significant tension, even within
this extended model, possibly indicating remaining systematic biases in the
measurements. We further show that this tension remains when the cosmological
model is further extended to include significant tensor modes, as suggested by
the recent BICEP2 results. Using the Bayesian evidence, we show that the
minimal CDM model is strongly favoured over its neutrino extensions by
various combinations of datasets. Robust data combinations yield stringent
limits of eV and eV at CL for the sum of active and sterile neutrinos,
respectively.Comment: 6 pages, version accepted by PR
Is there evidence for additional neutrino species from cosmology?
It has been suggested that recent cosmological and flavor-oscillation data
favor the existence of additional neutrino species beyond the three predicted
by the Standard Model of particle physics. We apply Bayesian model selection to
determine whether there is indeed any evidence from current cosmological
datasets for the standard cosmological model to be extended to include
additional neutrino flavors. The datasets employed include cosmic microwave
background temperature, polarization and lensing power spectra, and
measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillation scale and the Hubble constant.
We also consider other extensions to the standard neutrino model, such as
massive neutrinos, and possible degeneracies with other cosmological
parameters. The Bayesian evidence indicates that current cosmological data do
not require any non-standard neutrino properties.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. v3: replaced with version published in JCAP
(typo fixes, including Figure 1 units
No Place to Hide that Bytes won't Reveal: Sniffing Location-Based Encrypted Traffic to Track a User's Position
News reports of the last few years indicated that several intelligence
agencies are able to monitor large networks or entire portions of the Internet
backbone. Such a powerful adversary has only recently been considered by the
academic literature. In this paper, we propose a new adversary model for
Location Based Services (LBSs). The model takes into account an unauthorized
third party, different from the LBS provider itself, that wants to infer the
location and monitor the movements of a LBS user. We show that such an
adversary can extrapolate the position of a target user by just analyzing the
size and the timing of the encrypted traffic exchanged between that user and
the LBS provider. We performed a thorough analysis of a widely deployed
location based app that comes pre-installed with many Android devices:
GoogleNow. The results are encouraging and highlight the importance of devising
more effective countermeasures against powerful adversaries to preserve the
privacy of LBS users.Comment: 14 pages, 9th International Conference on Network and System Security
(NSS 2015
An Emulator for the Lyman-alpha Forest
We present methods for interpolating between the 1-D flux power spectrum of
the Lyman- forest, as output by cosmological hydrodynamic simulations.
Interpolation is necessary for cosmological parameter estimation due to the
limited number of simulations possible. We construct an emulator for the
Lyman- forest flux power spectrum from small simulations using
Latin hypercube sampling and Gaussian process interpolation. We show that this
emulator has a typical accuracy of 1.5% and a worst-case accuracy of 4%, which
compares well to the current statistical error of 3 - 5% at from BOSS
DR9. We compare to the previous state of the art, quadratic polynomial
interpolation. The Latin hypercube samples the entire volume of parameter
space, while quadratic polynomial emulation samples only lower-dimensional
subspaces. The Gaussian process provides an estimate of the emulation error and
we show using test simulations that this estimate is reasonable. We construct a
likelihood function and use it to show that the posterior constraints generated
using the emulator are unbiased. We show that our Gaussian process emulator has
lower emulation error than quadratic polynomial interpolation and thus produces
tighter posterior confidence intervals, which will be essential for future
Lyman- surveys such as DESI.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, accepted to JCAP with minor change
No new cosmological concordance with massive sterile neutrinos
It has been claimed recently that massive sterile neutrinos could bring about a new concordance between observations of the cosmic microwave background, the large-scale structure of the Universe, and local measurements of the Hubble constant, H0. We demonstrate that this apparent concordance results from combining data sets which are in significant tension, even within this extended model, possibly indicating remaining systematic biases in the measurements. We further show that this tension remains when the cosmological model is further extended to include significant tensor modes, as suggested by the recent BICEP2 results. Using the Bayesian evidence, we show that the cold dark matter model with a cosmological constant is strongly favored over its neutrino extensions by various combinations of data sets. Robust data combinations yield stringent limits of ∑mν≲0.3  eV and meffν,sterile≲0.3  eV at 95% C.L. for the sum of active and sterile neutrinos, respectively
Hiponatremia no calazar
There are few reports linking hyponatremia and visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar). This is a study of 55 consecutive kala-azar patients and 20 normal individuals as a control group. Hyponatremia and serum hypo-osmolality were detected in 100% of kala-azar patients. High first morning urine osmolality (750.0 ± 52.0 vs. 894.5 ± 30.0mOsm/kg H2O, p < 0.05), and high 24-hour urine osmolality (426.0 ± 167.0 vs. 514.6 ± 132.0 mOsm/kg H2O, p < 0.05) demonstrated persistent antidiuretic hormone secretion. Urinary sodium was high (82.3 ± 44.2 vs.110.3 ± 34.7 mEq/L, p < 0.05). Low seric uric acid occurred in 61.8% of patients and increased fractional urinary uric acid excretion was detected in 74.5% of them. Increased glomerular filtration rate was present in 25.4% of patients. There was no evidence of extracellular volume depletion. Normal plasma ADH levels were observed in kala-azar patients. No endocrine or renal dysfunction was detected. It is possible that most hyponatremic kala-azar patients present the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion.Existem poucos relatos relacionando hiponatremia com a leshmaniose visceral (calazar). Este é um estudo de 55 pacientes portadores de calazar e um grupo controle de 20 indivÃduos normais. Hiponatremia e hipo-osmolalidade sérica foram detectados em 100% dos pacientes portadores de calazar. A presença de alta osmolalidade da primeira urina da manhã (750,0 ± 52,0 vs. 894,5 ± 30 mOsm/Kg H2O, p < 0,05) e da urina de 24h (426,0 ± 167,0 vs. 514,6 ± 132,0 mOsm/Kg H2O, p < 0,05), demonstraram a presença de persistente secreção de hormônio antidiurético. A concentração de sódio urinário foi elevada (82,3 ± 44,2 vs. 110,3 ± 34,7 mEq/L, p < 0,05). Hipouricemia ocorreu em 61,8% dos pacientes e aumento da fração de excreção urinária de ácido úrico foi detectada em 74,5% dos casos. Aumento da velocidade de filtração glomerular estava presente em 25,4% dos pacientes. Não havia evidência clÃnica de depleção de volume extracelular. Valores normais de ADH plasmático foram observados nos pacientes com calazar. Não foi detectada disfunção renal ou endócrina. É provável, que a maioria dos pacientes com calazar apresente uma sÃndrome de secreção inapropriada de hormônio antidiurético
Is there evidence for additional neutrino species from cosmology?
It has been suggested that recent cosmological and flavor-oscillation data favor the existence of additional neutrino species beyond the three predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. We apply Bayesian model selection to determine whether there is indeed any evidence from current cosmological datasets for the standard cosmological model to be extended to include additional neutrino flavors. The datasets employed include cosmic microwave background temperature, polarization and lensing power spectra, and measurements of the baryon acoustic oscillation scale and the Hubble constant. We also consider other extensions to the standard neutrino model, such as massive neutrinos, and possible degeneracies with other cosmological parameters. The Bayesian evidence indicates that current cosmological data do not require any non-standard neutrino properties
Bayesian Analysis of Inflation III: Slow Roll Reconstruction Using Model Selection
We implement Slow Roll Reconstruction -- an optimal solution to the inverse
problem for inflationary cosmology -- within ModeCode, a publicly available
solver for the inflationary dynamics. We obtain up-to-date constraints on the
reconstructed inflationary potential, derived from the WMAP 7-year dataset and
South Pole Telescope observations, combined with large scale structure data
derived from SDSS Data Release 7. Using ModeCode in conjunction with the
MultiNest sampler, we compute Bayesian evidence for the reconstructed potential
at each order in the truncated slow roll hierarchy. We find that the data are
well-described by the first two slow roll parameters, \epsilon and \eta, and
that there is no need to include a nontrivial \xi parameter.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, minor changes; final version; accepted in PR
- …